I tried my best to focus on the batter too. If Jordan had signed for something, it would definitely be about the batter. Garret went through his motion and pitched an outside fastball. The batter didn't pull the bunt back; he just extended his arms and used the end of his bat to tap the ball forward.
Garret, as a left handed pitcher, had finished his whole motion and was facing the third baseline. The batter must have factored that in, because he placed the ball to come the opposite side of the mound. I hesitated, trying to remember if I should go get the ball or go cover first. With a glance to first, I saw that Sean had already covered the base, so I chose to sprint forward to get the ball that had died in the grass. The batter was almost to first by the time I picked up the ball, so in order to try and beat him, I threw my hardest. Ultimately, that led to bad aim. My throw went wide and Sean couldn't reach it. The runner was safe.
If anything, we got lucky with Tony coming in from right field to back up the throw, halting the runner from taking off to second. He threw the ball back to Garret before jogging back to his spot in the outfield.
Jordan called 'time' and came to the mound again, summoning the rest of us. Chris looked ready to chew me out, but Jordan beat him to it. "Goddamn it, Jake, pay attention. I signed for you to run in and for Sean to cover the bag."
"Leave him alone." Noah jumped in between, shielding me. "You can't just talk to your teammates like that."
"The hell I can!" Jordan didn't bother hiding his words behind a glove. "I'm the catcher. I call the shots. If I tell you to run in, run in!"
"He probably didn't know." Noah looked back at me. "Did you forget?"
I nodded quickly.
"See? It happens." Noah said.
Jordan wasn't appeased. "This is Varsity level. Not little league. There's no excuse."
"You need to chill." Garret told the senior, using his gloved hand to push Jordan on his chest protector. "I stand by what I said previously, this is my mound. Quit trying to take over." I tried shrinking away, hearing how serious Garret sounded. He was always easygoing, but today he sounded a little irritable. "Jake made a minor error. No biggie. We play on. Nothing you can do about the past, but remember it for the future." He looked at me, hiding behind Noah. "It's okay kid. Let it go and get the next one."
I nodded as fast as I could. Anything to reassure Garret that I won't do it again.
Jordan glared, but not at me surprisingly. It was sent directly at Garret. "This might be your mound for now, but don't forget that I'm in charge. You're just the figurehead."
Garret sneered. "If that's what you think, then go sit. I'm better off with a catcher that's willing to work with me and not use me as a damn puppet."
"Gentlemen, it's time. Get back to your positions and let's play ball." The umpire from home plate came up to our group.
"No thanks. I'm going out." Jordan sent a glare at Garret, turned on his heel, and headed back to the dugout, leaving me stunned. But I wasn't the only one. Sean and Noah had widened their eyes too. The crowd and our dugout was just as confused.
"Now look what you've done." Chris said to me in a nasty tone, staring me down. "We just lost our star catcher."
"Get back to third, before I ask Coach to replace you too." Garret told him. "Jordan hasn't been acting like a team player at all. Selecting to just catch for me to preserve his knees. F him. He thinks too highly of himself."
Chris sneered, but had no chance to reply once Coach showed up. Coach spoke with the ump while pointing at the bullpen. It didn't take long for Kelvin to come running out in full catchers gear. He and Coach both joined all of us at the mound.
"I don't know what you all said to make Jordan walk off and I don't care." Coach told us, catching me by surprise. "We'll deal with that tomorrow. For now, focus on the game."
"Won't be a problem, Coach." Garret showed a smile, looking more like himself. "It's probably for the best that he walked away. His ego was getting in the way of us winning." He glanced at Chris. "We can only hope that everyone can focus on playing now."
Coach's eyes narrowed. He faced Chris. "Is there a problem? I don't mind making another sub."
Chris swallowed down his previous complaints. "No, sir."
"Good. Get playing!" He scared the rest of us back to our positions before going back to the dugout.
Garret and Kelvin spent a few extra seconds together, sharing a few words behind their gloves. Supposedly it's to stop others from reading your lips, but I don't think that's a common occurrence in high school. Or is it? I should ask Noah. I looked over to see what he was doing, only to find him smirking in the direction of our own dugout. I looked too, and saw Coach Luis giving Jordan an earful as he took off his gear. It must have been a lecture of a lifetime because the rest of the team was on the other side of the dugout, not even daring to go over.
After the long pause, we finally resumed the game with Garret still on the mound and Kelvin behind home plate. Garret seemed more aggressive as he went after the number three batter. The batter connected on a 1-2 count, hitting a fast grounder to me.
I focused on catching the ball, then I tossed it to Noah on second, who was waiting. He then threw to first just as the runners slid into second. Double play! Out of the inning. We jogged back, no doubt feeling relieved with how everything worked out this time.
I stayed clear of Jordan in the corner and went right to my bag with Noah. The outfielders were the last to come in, and I saw Zeke go right to Coach, probably to ask what was going on. He didn't get too much time to get the details before nodding, going to his bag to grab his helmet and bat, then left the dugout.
Zeke didn't let us down, and hit a single on the fifth pitch. He even stole a base during Kelvin's at-bat. But our offensive strike ended with him. Kelvin struck out. Then Mahki struck out. Then Sean grounded out to the second baseman, leaving Zeke stranded on second base. Not exactly an exciting offense.
"It's alright." Noah tried to ease my distress. "You can't score every inning otherwise we'd be unstoppable. Quincy has been scoreless for the last two innings too. Nothing to worry about." We grabbed our gloves and hit the dirt.
I just don't think Noah understands that I was born to be a worrier. At this point, I was stressing that we weren't scoring and little fights kept popping up among us infielders. I glance to Zeke in the outfield. I bet this wouldn't be a problem if he could join the mound meetings. He'd easily keep everyone in check.
